June r, 1891.] 
THE TROPICAL. AGRICULTURIST, 
875 
vien cle boon iwee-lediij toyen cen in cen vliesje hesloten 
loggen.) Of tlie pellicle more anon. 
There aie some who say that the fruit is erhble 
when ripe, and that the substanoo which is found 
adhering to the kernel is very tasteful and palala- 
hle, but I havo never tried it, the riper the fruit, 
the iougbernnd harder the bean, which when properly 
dried is in a fit state both for exportation and use. 
The beans are not however eaten, but are planted 
and they spring up in 2 or 3 weeks and become fine 
saplings m a year ; and in the corn se of 3 or 4 years 
more they get to be trees of about 6 feet high; they 
are then maintaii ed at this heiglit hy censlait piuuii g 
and by not permitting them to rise hightr they bear 
most luxuriantly. 
The Arabians plant thfm genernlly at the foot 
of some mountains and in the vicinity of damp and 
moist nooks (hoeken) for the plants require moisture 
and the shade of trees, especially when young, and 
iience, they hs-.ve watercourses and drtches by which 
they now and then afford moisturo to the trees, and 
continue to do so, until the fruit is fully matured and 
about to drop down, when they leave them to dry 
on the trees. 
When the trees are not properly prrotecti d against 
the scorclnng ray^s of the sun, the bl'tsoms witiier 
and yield no fiu:t, and hence it is that the Arabians 
aie wont to plant them under some high and shady 
trees, in rows. 
Had I. been so wtdl informed in all matfers relating 
to the culture of these plants whilst I was iuAmboiua, 
as I am now, I believe I might then have brought 
them to greater perfection. 
The name of this fruit (or more propeily of the 
beverage we use) is not Coffee with the Atabiairs, 
but* Caweb, and with the Turks 
Oaweh, which some assert is an Arabian, and others a 
Turkish word, derived from the verb Gaheewab 
(signifying an aversion to meals) it is likewise a word 
used by the Arabians to denote wine. 
Now to understand how the coffee has so easily 
acquired that name through a bad pronunciation, it 
is to be recollected, that a little point or dot when 
placed over the — wr.nco, changes it to 
cafeh (as the French call it,) and which in process of 
time the Holland! rs detig’nated coffee. 
By caweb, the Arabians understand in tbe first 
instance Wine, and all such liquors as inebriate; 
secondly a beverage made from the Coffee shells or 
husk, and thirdly a drink prepat od from the beans 
thtinselves, which b( ans they call Brum. 
They say, that this fruit grows nowhere else but 
in their country. Exirerience has however taught ua 
that it is not so; but what they meant to say is, 
perhaps, that Coffee grows nowhere better than in 
their count'-y. 
Whether this plant is the natural production of 
Arabia or introduced there from some other country 
remains a doubtful point, for there are seme who 
a sert, that it was brought there from Ethiopia, 
and others again that it was carried thence to Ethi- 
opia. The latter supposition appears tbe most pro- 
bable, since Mr. Ludolf aud many others in their ac- 
count of Ethiopia say nothing of coffee, for bad the 
plant been indigenerrs to tbe country they would no 
doubt have made montion of it. 
Coffee is nowhere procurable in the whole of Arabia 
except in Yemen, aud even there, oi-ly in the towns 
of Betolfagi Sanaa aud Salbani. Betelfagi lies 35 
miles from Mocha, aud yields the best Coffee, and it 
is from this and the intermediate places between the 
mountains, that most of the Coffee of Turkey, Egypt, 
&c. is purchased. 
1 need not hero mention how the ronimon Coffee 
is prepa-ed, for it is now so well kuoivn even to 
Pediata {Kraawers) who go about from place to place 
that wo need not take auy lesson in this , particular 
from Coft'eo dealers. 
The use of this beverage has become now so gen- 
eral in our country that our ma ds and (amslresres 
could not bo williotit it in the mornings, for they 
^onld not manage to thread their neeolo witliout 
Arabic, 
some stimulus of this sort (of the draad wil door het 
oog xande naald niet,) I remember very well, that nrarly 
40 years ago, the useof Coffee as well as 'I'ea was almo.st 
unknown in thiscity; the Messrs. Vandrr Brouk, aud 
U. D. Heonaids (who have been m India) were the 
only persons who partook of either. But both Tea and 
C.'lfee have tjow become important articles of trade. 
I well recollect too, that it was in 1681 that I, 
for the first time in my life, took T\a with an In- 
dian Minister, and could not then well conceive how 
it was, !hat people of judgment and uiiderctauding 
could take delight aud indulge in a drink which 
tasted no better than Tlooy-wcUcr, (an infufioii of 
Hay); nor was I less surprised rrhen, in 1684, I 
partook i f a cup of Green Tea with a gentleinan 
at Botterdam, which cost him 80 Guilders the Pound ; 
but then I knew nothing of Coffco, nor ever drank 
it. It has since however been introduced liere, and 
it would appear, that it had fur some tmie before 
been known to tiie English also.^” 
Part II. 
How the Turks aud Arabians prepared their Coffee — 
How they made a beverage from it, something like 
All-opp’s Paie ,41eand drank it.— How the Hollanders 
aud John Bull attumpied Coffee piaiitiiig and failed, aud 
how the French succeeded beyond their expectations 
Tbe Pharmaceutical Garden of Amsteidaiii aud the 
lolitary Coffee iihint which grow there which a Right 
Hon’ble Miigistiate of that City l.id at the feet of 
Loui.s the XIV. of France as a very rare natural 
curiosity.— \Vi at the great Arabian Physician Aboe 
HI Sina and Beiidjazlah an eminent Physician of Bagdad 
wrote about Coffee, and in what manner it was°dis- 
covered, that_ tlie former Imew nothing about it — 
Petrus Bellonius — The great Botanist and Arch Phy- 
f-ician of Pa'iua, Prosper Alpinus, aad liis Latin 
Treatise on Oeffee, nminm es, and hieroglyphic 
The fanciful Petio Belh! Valle, who confounded Coffee 
with the Nepc-iitbe of Homer, and tlie brave Nairon 
who bullied him and set him to rights cn that point 
by Shi. wing him that Coffee was Coffee— The Italians 
import Coffee from tlie Levant, and the fame Faustua 
Naiiou who understood nil the known and unknown 
languages of the ^ East aud West writes a big book 
ill Latin about it — A French Treatise cn Coffee by 
Sylvester de Four a Merchant of Lyons — lastly of 
certain Shepherds who used Otffee as an antidote 
against sleep, and of certain Monks who kept 
their eyes open during their nightly vigils, by the 
use of the same stimulant. 
The Turks and Arabians seldom drink their Coffee 
in the ixanner we do, unless it were amongst tlie 
coinmou people; but persons of respectability and 
rank generally drink the kingly Coffee, or Coffee- 
Royal. 
They never prepare flieir Coffee with the beans, 
hut with the bark or parchment only, to which they 
add a fourth pa: t of the pielliclos in which the 
beans^ are enveloped, and all those who partook of 
this liquor (which retembies Euglifli Beer) say, that 
ior delicacy and pleasantness of taste, it far surpasses 
tbe common Coffee. 
Like the Hollanders who attempted Coffee culti. 
vation in Batavia, the English tried tbe experiment 
ill Madras, but with little, if not le.'s success which 
induced them to abandon it. The French had like- 
wise attempted the same thing on the Island of 
lilo-s Ctxroigu6 ill li22, &ik 1 is sjiid to havo be6ii so 
successful, that 26 pouiuls ot Coffee was put ou 
boiii'd of the ‘‘ 'Xritou ^ fer the rei^Dii-’g Dulxc 
^ All atlonipt ^\as likewise u;acle to cuitivate Ooftee 
HI the 1 hai'aiaccutical Garden of Amsterdaiu, where 
tJiey succeeded in raisiug olo plant winch the Eight 
It would seem that a Greek servant i-anied Tasqua 
who was brought into hy Mr. Dan. JOuwards. 
a turkey Merchant, m J.652, to niaho Ins C'oflke first 
set up the profession of ( 'off ee- man ixud introdiicod the 
drink into tins Island. 
A ide Euoy. Britanjiiop, vul. 5, page 123. 
